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The last remaining residents of a doomed Tyneside estate say they feel they are being forced out of their homes.

In 2011 Gateshead Council announced it would spend £11m knocking down 175 houses at Bleech Green in Blaydon.

Almost three years on and most of the semi-detached buildings remain, boarded up and covered in metal grills, with evidence of vandalism.

But for a few owner-occupiers, with cars still in their driveways and flowers hanging in baskets by their front doors, the eerily quiet streets are now a reminder of the community they’ve lost, and a source of anger.

“I don’t agree with anything that’s happened,” said retired mechanic John Armstrong, 61, who moved into the home he owns on Birch Road 14-and-a-half-years ago.

“I’m one of the few who actually owned their house - of the 176 the council said had to come down I think there was only 16 of us.

“When you own your own home and the land it sits on you think you are safe. But basically I feel I’ve been forced to move.”

Newlywed John, who is to move in with his bride after she exercised her right to buy her council house on the far side of the town, says he felt pressured to accept the local authority’s latest offer for fear it might seek a compulsory purchase order and end up paying him less.

“I’m not happy at all,” said John, who currently lives alone in his three bedroom house.

“I’ve got an end plot here that was twice the size of everyone else and I’d built it up to suit myself, with a garage and what not, and a couple of big sheds in the back garden.

“If I spruced it up and put it on the open market I think I’d get £15,000 to £20,000 more than the council have offered.

“But I was advised that I wouldn’t get any more from the council and that they could go to the High Court and force me out.

“I didn’t want to get involved in that. I’ve not been well in recent months - I’ve had small strokes - and I just don’t need the stress.”

John said that while he will leave the “ghost town” in September - “To a property that I can only just afford, which is smaller and has less land,” he said - he believes his fellow remaining neighbours will stick it out until the bitter end.

“The council claim that the houses needed repair - but really? All 170 odd of them?

“Maybe half-a-dozen had a problem with subsidence but mine doesn’t, and most of my friends had no problems with their houses.

“Just the other side of Winlaton the council are spending god knows what on refurbishing eyesore prefab houses, yet ours are being torn down.

“At the start they implied that they had surveyed people and most would rather leave, but few people really did.

“But many were council tenants so had less of a choice.

“There’s still an ex-councillor who owns his house and says he definitely won’t go, and a guy at the end of the street has extended to make his a four-bedroom house, and has so far refused all offers.

“And I thought the only time I’d ever move from here would be if I won the lottery or somehow came to inherit money.

“Personally I’d like to see the clock wound back to before this all started. I wish it had never begun.”

John Armstrong one of the few residents left in Birch Road, Blaydon

A spokesman for Gateshead Council said the authority had “considerable problems with letting properties on the estate” before the demolition was proposed and that “turnover of properties was also considerably higher than the borough average, with more than a third of tenancies on the estate less than three years old indicating low community stability and cohesion.”

It plans to raze all of the houses to the ground and then grass over the entire area, so potential developers have an “empty site” from which to imagine what they would like to build.

The spokesman said that the next phase of demolition could begin before the end of the month, with a second phase planned from early December and a third stage next year - though some homeowners have not yet agreed to leave.

However the council continues to negotiate with the remaining homeowners, offering them “the market value of their house as determined by an independent valuer, plus 10% as way of compensation, plus all related costs such as removals, disconnecting and reconnecting their Sky satellite dish and even school uniforms, and a capital loan of up to £35,000 towards any new property.”

“Properties on the Bleach Green estate had a number of problems relating to the structure of the buildings,” Andrew Marshall, the authority’s service director for economic and housing growth, said.

“Anti-social behaviour was a serious issue too, and we had increasing difficulty trying to find tenants who were prepared to live there.

“We examined various options for Bleach Green, and it was soon clear that major investment would have been required to bring these homes up to Decent Homes standards and this still would not have guaranteed the long-term sustainability of the estate.

“We asked residents what they thought and almost two-thirds agreed that demolition and redevelopment of the estate would be their preferred option.

“We therefore agreed that tenants would be given priority for re-housing and offered help and support to find new homes elsewhere so we could eventually re-develop the estate with new, modern housing that would meet and surpass current standards.

“We know that moving home can be a disruptive and upsetting process, but we are doing everything we can to make it as easy and stress-free as possible.

“This includes working closely with the small number of owner-occupiers there who we are offering full market value for their homes plus 10%, and paying all their expenses such as removal costs, disconnection fees, and legal fees.

“Over 90% of residents have now relocated and the vast majority of the estate is empty. Demolition is due to start on August 18.”